About Mae

Mae Lu is a Canada-born, So-Cal-raised Asian American 30 Something, living a dream with her hubby & dog in the magical kingdom of Hawaii.

This red-lipstick aficionado designs websites for a living and runs a fledgling lifestyle YouTube Channel in her spare time. On the weekends, if she's not filming, you can find her behind the lens of her Sony A6000, shooting scenery in Hawaii, hiking the hills and ridges of her beloved island home, or chasing the perfect sunset.

Why "thereafterish."? Because "and they lived happily ever thereafter" is just half of every story, and this is mine.

Architecture of an Outfit / How to Mix Prints: Stripes on Zebra

Afraid of clashing prints? Not sure how to wear mixed prints? Not a problem. Start conservatively. Same color family, same palette with one print more dominant than the other. Can’t go wrong.

[These photos make me look like a strangely forlorn girl… all the wistful expressions… it’s just a pose. I swear I’m okay. :)]

Architecture of an Outfit: How to Mix Prints – Striped Zebra Lonely Girl

How to Mix Prints: start out with the same color palette. Can’t go wrong with cream and black.

How to wear mixed prints: try stripes with zebra. It’ll keep people on their toes.

If you don’t think you can wear something, you’ll never have the courage or the poise to pull it off, so you have to walk out that door thinking you look fabulous and ignore the stares. And with mixed prints and statement jewelry,

people will stare. Make it worth their while!

The secret (for me) to mixing prints: making sure one print is more dominant than the other. The zebra is louder than the smaller stripes of the top, and they’re in a similar color palette, so they work together instead of against each other. If the stripes were too bold, it would fight with the zebra, creating disharmony overall. Same goes with more daring combinations of contrasting color prints, like stripes on stripes, stripes on chevron, polka dots on stripes or leopard on stripes (and yet more stripes on leopard); one print should be more dominant than the other so that one creates more of a textured background to the other.

If you’re crazy enough to do it, mixing prints isn’t hard. Just go effing do it.

When it comes down to it, my love of mixing prints must stem from my own weirdness. I don’t like blending in, nor do I like the feeling of melting into a blasé norm, losing the unique, weird qualities of personality that distinguish me from your average person. Not that I disdain normal, I just prefer to think of myself as “different” and “strange”, it gives me the confidence to wake up, get through my day and somehow find satisfaction with all of it. If that makes me weird or garners stares, I’m okay with it.

It’s taken me a long time to learn how to like Mae for Mae. Now that I’m getting there, I don’t want to turn this journey on its head and turn back now.

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About Mae

Mae Lu is a Canada-born, So-Cal-raised Asian American 30 Something, living a dream with her hubby & dog in the magical kingdom of Hawaii.

This red-lipstick aficionado designs websites for a living and runs a fledgling lifestyle YouTube Channel in her spare time. On the weekends, if she's not filming, you can find her behind the lens of her Sony A6000, shooting scenery in Hawaii, hiking the hills and ridges of her beloved island home, or chasing the perfect sunset.

Why "thereafterish."? Because "and they lived happily ever thereafter" is just half of every story, and this is mine.